CraicBaby:The thing that makes school shootings so difficult to prevent is that there is no profile for a mass shooter. Criminal profilers have tried to come up with one that might help identify who has the potential to carry out a mass shooting, but there is no single profile that they all fit. Some are older, some are younger. Some are white, some aren't. Some came from good families, some came from messed-up families. Some had mental health issues, some didn't. Some were loners, some weren't. Some had criminal backgrounds, some had never had much more than a traffic ticket. Some have an accomplice, some act alone. Some were bullied, some were bullies themselves. There just is no way to predict who will be a mass shooter.

Nina_Hartley's_Ass:CraicBaby: The thing that makes school shootings so difficult to prevent is that there is no profile for a mass shooter. Criminal profilers have tried to come up with one that might help identify who has the potential to carry out a mass shooting, but there is no single profile that they all fit. Some are older, some are younger. Some are white, some aren't. Some came from good families, some came from messed-up families. Some had mental health issues, some didn't. Some were loners, some weren't. Some had criminal backgrounds, some had never had much more than a traffic ticket. Some have an accomplice, some act alone. Some were bullied, some were bullies themselves. There just is no way to predict who will be a mass shooter.

Nina_Hartley's_Ass:CraicBaby: The thing that makes school shootings so difficult to prevent is that there is no profile for a mass shooter. Criminal profilers have tried to come up with one that might help identify who has the potential to carry out a mass shooting, but there is no single profile that they all fit. Some are older, some are younger. Some are white, some aren't. Some came from good families, some came from messed-up families. Some had mental health issues, some didn't. Some were loners, some weren't. Some had criminal backgrounds, some had never had much more than a traffic ticket. Some have an accomplice, some act alone. Some were bullied, some were bullies themselves. There just is no way to predict who will be a mass shooter.

They all have guns.

If the next 5 or 6 mass killings are done with steak knives, does this mean we can't have steak? Cuz, my dog, he wants steak.

the fact that he planned to kill his family is what first disappoints me,and his target was an elementary school? the fool should attack the school administration, not the kids, and especially not kids that young. But who knows if what the news tells is the truth, maybe the want to make him look bad? there's all sorts of hearsay about the columbine shooters and just about every other school shooter. Propaganda to make them unrelateable/super evil.you know that schools do nothing to protect kids that are targets for bullying, sometimes they even promote it, this is the result.

I've always found it strange that we totally freak the fark out about shiat like this. I mean, come on! You've got a better chance getting hit by a train, on Tuesday the 29th of February, at 3 pm, while it's raining, on a pogo stick; than you do of getting killed in a shooting like this one.

Lsherm:Once there, detectives say LaDue detailed an elaborate plot that started with murdering his mother, father and sister with a .22 caliber firearm. LaDue then planned to go to a remote area outside Waseca to start fires that would pull first responders out of town. At that time, investigators say, LaDue planned to go to the middle and high school campus during lunch and set off pressure cooker bombs to kill students. When the school police liaison officer responded, LaDue planned to shoot him, and then open fire on more students.

A+ for ambition. He thought through more things than most school shooters do.

Marquis de Sod:Lsherm: Once there, detectives say LaDue detailed an elaborate plot that started with murdering his mother, father and sister with a .22 caliber firearm. LaDue then planned to go to a remote area outside Waseca to start fires that would pull first responders out of town. At that time, investigators say, LaDue planned to go to the middle and high school campus during lunch and set off pressure cooker bombs to kill students. When the school police liaison officer responded, LaDue planned to shoot him, and then open fire on more students.

A+ for ambition. He thought through more things than most school shooters do.

No more Adderall for that kid

Have you checked the pharmacy purchases of your penal institutions lately?

You seem sure about that. It's almost as if you truly believe that people who want to kill others won't do it because there is a law that says they can't have guns. It's so cute. You're a special kind of stupid, aren't you?

Gah. I realize I shouldn't go here, but I'm going to. And bear in mind that I used to carry firearms professionally. I have qualified as an expert marksman with a bunch of things whose names start with "M-". My 76-year-old mother has a CFL. I like guns.

Having said that, what's your solution? At least the people who say "let's ban all guns" are offering something. There is- there has got to be- some sort of middle ground between "let's get rid of the damn things" and "Oh, well, what are you going to do about it?"

I'm sick of mass shootings. I'm also sick of hearing people calling for the disarmament of the nation after every mass shooting. But, I'm ALSO sick of hearing people say "Well, this is the greatest country in the world, but there's absolutely nothing we can do to prevent these mass shootings. They're just part of life. If we didn't have them, the killer would just use a trebuchet, halberd, and mace. There's no point in having this conversation, because it's an absolutely unsolvable problem" after every mass shooting.

Sorry about the rant. I just needed to get that off my chest.

I realize that it's late enough in the thread you're never likely to read this, but here's the answer:

There are two *real* options. Banning guns wholesale, or allowing them *mostly* unchecked (ie, what we have now, but with various levels of semantic).

The issue with the status quo (+/- a few specific semantic points) is pretty obvious: people are going to keep doing this shiat. Clearly that is unacceptable. The problem is that there is rationally NOTHING anyone can do to prevent any given person from picking up a firearm they own and saying "today, I'm gonna kill somebody". The thing that prevents that is the person who owns the firearm...and when they're broken, that prevention method isn't gonna work. The problem with correcting THAT issue is that there's no real way to stop somebody from doing things that doesn't involve a lot of dumb luck (see also: this kid in TFA) and/or shattering even the illusion of a "free society". You'd have to have camera everywhere, including in homes, a massive monitoring algorithm, a much larger and more aggressive police force to be able to intercept somebody about to do something, and so forth. The solution becomes worse than the problem.

As for banning guns, there's one and only one way to make sure that they aren't a problem in the future. You have to ban and confiscate EVERY firearm in the country. Good farking luck. Guns last 100+ years in firing condition with a modicum of care - just banning sales won't work. You'll have a "remainder problem" of 300+ million modern firearms floating around even if you banned all gun sales today. It's patently obvious by now that people aren't about to turn in their firearms voluntarily (see also: Connecticut Gun Ban), and if you go door-to-door you'll get through about 10 houses before the shooting actually starts. Cops are refusing to do that duty (see also: Connecticut Gun Ban), and so you'd end up having to deploy the military against a civilian force that outnumbers them 50-1 AND are their friends, family,and neighbors. Again, good farking luck.

Basically, we're in a hole. There's no *good* way around the issue - no legislation is going to stop mass shootings as long as people have ANY access to modern firearms...but getting rid of the modern firearms is a literal impossibility (you'd have to get rid of the knowledge on how to make them too. For the third time: good farking luck). So we're just going to have to deal with it and rant towards one another on the internet until such time as aliens fly in instantly melt every gun on the planet, and erase the technical know-how of the last 800 years from the entirety of human consciousness.

Until then, I prefer the option that at least grants me the slim, almost infintesimal, chance of protecting myself if the unthinkable DOES happen near me. Any odds are better than zero.

...There's no real way to stop somebody from doing things that doesn't involve a lot of dumb luck (see also: this kid in TFA) and/or shattering even the illusion of a "free society". You'd have to have camera everywhere, including in homes, a massive monitoring algorithm, a much larger and more aggressive police force to be able to intercept somebody about to do something, and so forth. The solution becomes worse than the problem.

Incorrect, and you're a farking idiot for trying. There's a world of options in between them, but anything short of a complete ban and universal confiscation still leaves the possibility of a mass shooting open. Deal with it.

FightDirector:Nina_Hartley's_Ass: FightDirector: There are two *real* options.

False dilemma.

Incorrect, and you're a farking idiot for trying. There's a world of options in between them, but anything short of a complete ban and universal confiscation still leaves the possibility of a mass shooting open. Deal with it.You're both wrong. The real solution is to find the underying cause(s) of why some people do these things, and address that. Guns are a symptom, not the cause. Remember, the worst-ever known-deliberate school massacre in all of U.S. history to date (the Bath School Massacre of Bath, WI, in May of 1927), whose body count = Columbine and Virginia Tech combined, didn't involve a single bullet fired at anyone (neither did any of the Top Seven [by body count] non-act-of-war mass murders on U.S. soil in all of U.S. history).

People talk about how silly it is to think that if there were no guns available, that mass murderers would simply use knives or clubs or axes or trebuchets instead. They point out how guns could kill many more victims in an incident than any of those could (with the possible exception of the trebuchet). Not so. The weapon of choice would become the one used in the aforementioned Bath School Massacre, and also the one used in the worst-ever non-act-of-war mass murder overall (namely, Oklahoma City [I consider 9/11 an act of war, otherwise it'd be #1 and the list would be the Top Eight, not Top Seven, since it, too, involved no bullets fired at anyone]): explosives (which LaDue had also planned on using), with arson fire also way up there (the #2 mass murder in U.S. history, namely, the Happy Land Night Club fire, and also the #1 school tragedy which may have been intentional, but likely was intentionally done but not intended to kill: the Our Lady of Angels school arson fire which killed mostly elementary school students [like Sandy Hook] than the Texas University Tower Sniper, Columbine, Virginia Tech, and Sandy Hook, all combined! Over 100 dead). Those can kill many times more people in a single incident by a single perpetrator than any firearm can.

I for one would very much like to know if LaDue had been treated recently for any psychiatric condition, with any psychotropic pharmaceutical, especially any Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI). These and SNRIs as well have been connected to a disproportionately high number of such incidents.

COMALite J:I for one would very much like to know if LaDue had been treated recently for any psychiatric condition, with any psychotropic pharmaceutical, especially any Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI). These and SNRIs as well have been connected to a disproportionately high number of such incidents.

In young people. I've been on SSRIs since age 29 (22 years ago) and it's greatly reduced my violent urges. I hardly even bother to hold grudges anymore let alone seriously consider murdering anybody. (In real life I just "click Ignore" on everybody but people I have to interact with, and them I don't take seriously.)

And booze just makes me calm & sleepy. By the way, because having to save up for uncovered medical devices means I can no longer afford decent beer, it's good to learn that powdered sugar dissolves pretty well in lemon juice and rum or vodka, thus sparing me the trouble of making simple syrup and making room for a couple more ice cubes. And let's face it, few things are as refreshing as lemonade. Yum yum. It'd probably be better to not keep a pitcher in the fridge though, my brain is getting more damaged just fine as it is.